February Reviews
Classification: Teen Fantasy
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic Books
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In the ruins of what was once North America 16 year old Katniss is one of 23 youth participating in the annual "Hunger Games", survival games that must be played until only one is left alive.
A complex gripping tale that explores timely topics with brilliant plotting and perfect pacing.
Hunger Games series:
#1 Hunger Games
#2 Catching Fire
#3 Mockingjay
Title:
The Paris
Wife
Classification:
Fiction
Author:
Paula McLain
Publisher:
Random House
Copyright: 2011
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:
"The Paris Wife" is a
poignant fictional account of Ernest Hemingway and his first wife Hadley.
Young and much in love they sail to Paris where they are ill prepared to
become part of the fast living world of Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Ezra Pound, etc. Determined to become an important writer, Hemingway is
intense and complex; Hadley is quiet and traditional - a mix that, for them,
was doomed to fail.
Classification: Fiction
Author: Charles Frazier
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2011
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In "Nightwoods", set in the early 1960's, Luce inherits her murdered sister's 2 young traumatized children.Two men enter their lives- her sister's husband ( and killer) and a kind thoughtful local man. Living in solitude in the Appalachin mountains they slowly start to heal but not without more terror.
An OK read but not as powerful as his "Cold Mountain" or "Thirteen Moons".
Classification: Fiction
Author: Susan Vreeland
Publisher:
Copyright:
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: "The Passion of Artemesia" is based on the life of Baroque Italian painter Artemesia Gentileschi (1593-1653), the first major female artist to be recognized during her lifetime. Struggling always between family life and an intense passion to paint, Artemesia led a creative and varied life.
Writer Vreeland provides a work that inspires imaginative images of Renaissance Italy and Renaissance art.
January Reviews
Classification: Mystery
Author: Louise Penny
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2011
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In "A Trick of the Light" Montreal Chief Inspector Gamache and his lieutenant Beauvoir, still healing physically and psychologically from their last case, take on another murder investigation. In a secluded village the solo exhibition of a local artist causes a sensation in the art world which creates jealousy, failed aspirations, unsure relationships and murder.
Number 7 in the Armand Gamache series, this latest one shows good characterization, insight and sensitivity.
Classification: Fiction
Author: Margot Berwin
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday
Copyright: 2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Newly divorced Lila Nova meets plant seller David Exley and her world is turned upside down.She learns about medicinal plant properties and 9 mystical plants that bring fame, fortune, immortality and passion. The hunt is on as she travels through the Yucatan, scarcely prepared but game to try. Enter love interest Diego, shamans, and spirit animals.
Entertaining but poorly executed magical realism and one wonders if she really learned anything about real life.
Title: Those Across the River
Classification: Fiction/Horror
Author: Christopher Buehlman
Publisher: Penguin Group
Copyright: 2011
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: "Those Across the River" finds writer Frank Nichols & his wife Eudora moving to a sleepy Georgia town in the 1930's where he intends to chronicle a history of his family's old plantation estate. A presence across the river cannot be ignored! Frank investigates and they are drawn into a horror which doesn't let up.
Title: Then Again
Classification: Biography/memoir
Author: Diane Keaton
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2011
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In "Then Again" actress Diane Keaton presents a double portrait of her mother and herself. Her mom, Dorothy, complicated, energetic and creative and Diane, insecure but always open to new experiences, had a special bond. Keaton talks little about the famous men in her life, but much about her childhood and her adult professional life. The memoir goes further with thought provoking subjects of motherhood, work, aging, mortality and the search for self-knowledge.
To read Carol's past reviews, please visit The Back Shelves
Meet Carol
Like a quilt, my life is made up of bits and pieces of time in which to read, quilt, cultivate friendships and visit my three grandchildren. Stitch in a full time job and life is full! My reading preferences run toward historically based fiction, mysteries and biographies.